WELL! I don't know what is going wrong. I still can't get the board to work.

I've used both arduino 22 and arduino 23. I have loaded MultiWiiV1_7 with both. I got the port COM4 open. The message says the upload was done. I open the conf. file which downloaded with the MultiWiiV1_7, and then nothing! The GUI does nothing. I click on the port, read, write, calibrate, start and all I get is a straight line graph. I installed the board in the QTR and............................... NOTHING.

I'm a little confused. From post 277 below it sounds like it was working at some point...

Quote:

Originally Posted by tom-tom 1

Thanks for the GUI file. I got it to work. I've been busy building a simple test Quad Copter. Hopefully I can get the board working on it and then put it in my QTR VTOL.

Did the board not work on the test quad or are you saying that the board stopped working after you took it off the test quad?

Let me try to quickly give you my history with the project. I saw F&T "The Twins" liked it, and found my way to "QTR VTOL". Following the RCGroups thread, I built the airframe. I had a HK KK board from back burner Quad project. I installed it and tried to get the QTR to hover. I built too heavy so the 1300kv motors were not handling it, and one motor broke loose and pulled a wire loose. I soldered it back, it shorted and smoked the motor and ESC. I realized I needed larger motors and from the thread, I also needed a MultiWii board. At the time the thread was talking about building the board from a pro mini board, a multiwii controller and a nunchuck. I ordered all the parts and (time-time-time) assembled them. Meanwhile, I ran into a guy(in Georgia) and he gave me a quad frame. It hapened to have a Multiwiiboard on it. In the meantime, I receive my parts and assembled a board. I got one of the boards, I don't remember which, to upload the code and the GUI to run. Anyway, it showed the attitude of the quad moving and the graph changed as I moved the board. I really don't know much more than that. I never could get it hooked up and running. I don't know anyone locally to help me get it figured out. I thought probably I didn't do something right when assembling it and the board the guy gave me probably was bad. I found a good looking board on ebay and ordered it. It came with a LCD, and programing device. That's the board that I'm trying to get working. I would love to send it to you or buy one from you that you know works and has the F&T QTR code 1.7 loaded into it. I'm really getting tired of messing with this on my own without any progress, or so it seems. You can contact me at tomsheffer@bellsouth.net if you are not tired of me. I tried to do this "quickly", but that didn't work either.

Hi tom-tom1. Thanks for explaination. I think what is happening is that there are too many boards being shuffled around in an attempt to build quicker which is actually slowing things down and adding to the frustration.

I only know how to use a DIY ProMini/Hacked Wii sensors board since that is all I have had experience with so far.

I don't mind going through this step by step with you if you are up for it. These things do get frustrating at times so I understand if you prefer to take a break from it. I can't really upload the code for you since minor code changes will inevitably need to be made several times for which you will have to be able to load the code and do the testing yourself.

These are the steps I recommend. You can't skip a step...
1) Upload the blink sketch to a ProMini.
2) Upload the 1.7 Wii code to the ProMini.
3) Add the Wii sensors to the ProMini.
4) See if you can connect to the configurator and see the gyro graph move.
3) Build a MultiWii quadcopter with this working board.
4) Get used to adjusting PID settings and flying your quad.
5) Don't worry about this step yet. Lets just see how far we can get with 1-4

Hey f&t. Looks like you exceeded your PM limit so let us know if it's cool to use your thread or if it's best to start a new one before we get too far. Don't want to hijack your thread if you prefer to keep this one clean since this is your build.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tom-tom 1

Thanks, I'm ready if you are. Where do I find the blink sketch?

An old blink sketch tutorial is here. The sketch might be called blink without delay in arduino 0022. After you navigate to it. Hit the compile button then hit the upload sketch button in Arduino 0022.

RCvertt,
Do you mean for me to cut the wires from the Wii device to the ProMini before I load the blink file and the 1.7 code to it?

Yes.
Only a clean ProMini and programming cable should be used for this first test. Wii sensors are not needed for this test so they should be removed.

We only want the absolute minimum electronics connected that are needed to complete each test. Less electronics will make any trouble shooting much easier for us. If your wii sensors are connected to the board during this test then it is possible to damage the Wii sensors since the blink sketch is not sending the correct signals to the Wii sensor pins.

If your ProMini starts to blink after you load up the Blink test sketch, then your ProMini is most likely in good working condition.

Images

Make sure you use a soldering iron that is 15 watts or less. A 25 or greater is too much heat and will likely damage the sensors. Try to apply heat for the shortest amount of time possible. If you stay too long, even with a 15 watt soldering iron, you can damage the sensors. The best way to avoid prolonged heat exposure is to apply some solder to the sensor pads, then apply solder to the wires, then put the wire on the sensor pad and apply heat to both.

I'm not sure if the solder blob, marked in red, should be there. If you didn't put that solder blob there, then leave it in place.

Cut the bare unconnected wires the same length as the shortest brown wire and put a strip of electrical tape over them all so they aren't exposed and can't touch each other. You could unsolder them also since we won't be using the accel board for a while, if at all, but it might be best to just cut them to prevent adding more heat to the board.

The soldering to the ProMini looks correct but is premature. Unsolder the wires from the ProMini and load up the 1.7 MultiWii code.

I unsoldered the MW board from the ProMini board.
I uploaded the 1_7 code to the ProMini board. I started the conf. and got the quad graphic on the right (it didn't move) and the single line graph scrolled accross the screen and numbers populated the upper left hand side of the screen.
The green LED is flashing quickly and the red LED is on steady.

I don't know about the blob of solder on the MW board. I am not new to soldering. I try to be careful, but I have to think, I may have dripped a drop. I don't see the blob on my other board or any of the illustrations I can find on the web.

With your sensors soldered to the ProMini, If you change a PID value number then hit the "read" button and the number you changed jumps back to it's default value, then you are definitely connected to the config program.

If you are connected to the config program and your graph doesn't move when you shake the sensor, something is wrong with your sensor board. Disconnect your ProMini from the computer and remove that solder blob. If the sensors still don't show up in the config program after pressing the "read" button then the sensor board is toast. It happens some times, especially with the first try. Some of the ebay knock offs just won't work no matter what you do.

If you can't get this sensor board to come alive then I recommend getting a genuine WMP from target and try again. It'll probably cost about 20 to 30$ for it. Don't get the cheapest WMP that target sells because even they carry some of the bad online clones. It has to be a genuine Nintendo WMP.